Wiping cloth



March 31, 1964 o. A. FRANEY WIPING CLOTH Filed Dec. 51, 1962 INVENTOR.Uzi/MAE 14. [64/1/15 United States Patent 3,126,572 WIPING CLOTH OrvilleA. Franey, 8560 Wolven Ave., Rockford, Mich. Filed Dec. 31, 1962, Ser.No. 248,347 4 Claims. (Cl. -506) This invention relates to a wiping andwashing towel, and more particularly to a towel for removing dust anddirt from a polished surface without scratching and without duststreaks.

Polished surfaces such as glossy automobile bodies and furniture panelsquickly lose their luster when covered with even the thinnest layer ofdust. Automobile dealers are particularly plagued by the constantcoating of dust and dirt on vehicles displayed. Such vehicles mustconstantly be washed, or dusted by spraying or wiping some sort ofdusting liquid or paste on the vehicle and then wiping it off with atowel or cloth. This can consume about fifteen minutes for each vehicle,and must be repeated fairly often, especially on surfaces of darkershades of color, e.g., black and maroon. Moreover, if any dirt of largerparticle size than ordinary dust happens to be on the surface, thewiping action often scratches the polished surface. Yet, if the surfacesare not cleaned often, their attractiveness is substantially lessened.Even with repeated dusting, a certain amount of streaking occurs whenwiping the surface with a cloth. The total amount of time consumed inwiping several vehicles on display is therefore considerable. Thesefacts are, of course, well-known.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a wiping andwashing cloth or towel capable of dusting polished surfaces such asfurniture panels and automobile bodies, without smearing the dust eventhough no separate polishing liquid or paste is applied to the surface.The special towel collects the foreign particles from the surface andretains the dirt in the towel out of Contact with the polished surfaceas the cloth is rubbed over it. Extensive experimental use has shownthat a surface having a heavy dust layer can be wiped sparkling cleanwithout streaks in a few swipes of the novel towel when damp. In fact,an entire automobile body can be cleaned in less than two minutes,leaving the surface free of dust and streaks.

It is another object of this invention to provide a wiping and washingcloth not only capable of cleaning polished surfaces without extra pasteor liquid being applied to the surface, and doing so without streaking,but which can also accommodate the removal of larger dirt particles suchas sand without scratching. The cloth elevates the particles into aposition completely out of contact with the surface. In fact, remarkableas it may seem, even of a handful of sand particles is placed on asurface such as a black automobile body, the novel cloth will collectthe sand in one or two swipes without ever scratching the surface as thecloth is rubber over it to dust and polish it. Consequently, polishedsurfaces such as automobile bodies can be cleaned very often because ofthe ease of doing so, the small time required, and the improved results.

It is another object of this invention to provide such a non-scratching,non-smearing wiping and washing towel that can be manufacturedrelatively inexpensively, that has an extremely long useful life, andthat can be cleaned merely by rinsing in water in conventional fashion.The towel can be used when damp to dust, or with Water to wash. No extraspray or paste need be used on the surface with the cloth. The cloth ismerely dampened, wiped over the surface and that is all. The useful dirtand dust retention qualities are retained over an extended period oftime.

These and other objects of this invention will be apparent upon studyingthe following specification in conjunction with the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the novel towel;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary sectional elevational view of the towel in FIG.1; and

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view of a portion of thetowel showing the specific loop structure used.

Basically, the inventive towel is comprised of a fabric, e.g., woven orknitted, having a plurality of pairs of string or twine loops extendingfrom the surface of the fabric in one general direction and stitched tothe cloth. The entire cloth, including the loops, is impregnated with apolishing wax to give them body, causing them to protrude away from thesurface, and to impart polishing qualities to them.

Referring specifically to the drawings, the novel cloth or towel it),comprises a fabric 11 of desired size and shape. This fabric may beformed by any conventional method such as knitting or weaving. Attachedto at least one surface of the fabric are thousands of pairs of loopelements shown in exaggerated size, each pair in cluding a larger loop12 and a smaller loop 14. These are arranged in rows and protrude awayfrom the cloth in a tangential manner, in one general direction. Theymay extend toward the long side of the cloth if the cloth is elongatedso that it can be wiped in sideways action. Each loop is of string, ortwine or cloth, i.e., twisted fibers, having its legs attached to thefabric as by stitching. The exact size of the loops may vary somewhat,but it has been found that the wiping action is optimum for normal dirtand dust particles if the smaller loop 14 has a height of about A; of aninch and an overall length of approximately A of an inch, or slightlygreater, and the larger loop has a height of about ,1 of an inch, and anoverall length somewhere around /8 of an inch. The legs of each largerloop straddles those of a smaller loop. When manufactured, the loops arestitched in rows across the towel for most expeditious handling. In acloth about 30 inches long there should be about pairs of loops over thelength. These of course are representative figures for illustrationpurposes. The broader aspects of this invention are not to be limited tothese values.

After the cloth is formed with the loops attached, the entire unit ispretreated by placing it in boiling water, and adding to the boilingwater a polishing Wax of some suitable type that is normally solid orsemi-solid at room temperatures but which becomes suspended in theboiling water. The towel thereby becomes impregnated with the wax,including the loops. The impregnated towels are then removed and dried.As will be noted more fully hereinafter, the wax serves a dual purpose.It imparts polishing characteristics to the cloth, but equally or moreimportant, it causes the loops to be semi-stiff, i.e., have considerablebody, to extend away from the fabric, or at least not be pressed intothe fabric when rubbed over a surface. If not so impregnated, the limploops would readily flatten out and be pressed into the fabric layer.The function of the cloth, to be explained, would then be lost. Beforeuse, therefore, each towel has a certain amount of stiffness and bodybecause of the solidified or semi-solidified furniture wax impregnatedin it. Conceivably, some additional additive could be used to providegreater body to the loops, thereby allowing a wider choice of wax. Tomake it pliable for use, the towel is dampened with water and wrung out.The impregnated loops protrude slightly as shown in exaggerated form in.FIG. 2.

As the cloth is wiped over the surface, the loops are in contact withthe polished surface to be dusted. The larger loops catch the particlesof dust, dirt, sand, and other foreign matter and scoop them up. Thecloth is wiped in a direction with the loops dragging. The particles ofsand are believed to be thrown into the second, inner, smaller loopswhich are closer to the cloth surface. The particles are then forcedslowly up into the fabric of the cloth from the second loops. Since theloops are normally the only contacting portion of the cloth on thesurface, these particles which become embedded in the cloth layer, donot again contact the surface during continued wiping movement.Experimentation has shown that one loop will not do the job adequately,but that at least two loops are necessary to pass the dirt up to thefabric body. Preferably the cloth fabric is quite loosely knit toreadily receive and hold the particles.

It has been found that in use of this cloth, one swipe of the damp clothover a very dusty surface cleans the surface without any smear whatever.Even if sand is placed on the automobile body, and the cloth is wipedover, no scratching occurs. This is truly remarkable and a vastimprovement over known towels. In fact, the inventor, in efforts todetermine the interest of automobile dealers in his product, hasrepeatedly, on the strength of a mere two minute demonstration withshowroom automobiles, immediately sold dozens upon dozens of his towelsto dealers who did not even question the handsome price quoted after thedemonstration. This product has clearly demonstrated its uniqueness andusefulness. It fills a definite gap in the art. No extra liquid or pasteneed be used at all with it since it is self-sufiicient. After beingused the cloth is merely rinsed out in a conventional manner and wrungout to dry. It can then be reused at any time. It lasts for an extendedperiod of time, limited only by the wearing qualities of the cloth andloops. The inventor herein realizes that the theory of operationexplained above, although believed to be entirely correct, actually maynot be the exact scientific explanation of the operation of this cloth.Whatever the mode of operation, the features set forth with the multipleloop assembly, especially larger loops straddling smaller loops, isunique for optimum results with the wax impregnated wiping towel.Therefore, the inventor should not be limited to his attemptedexplanation of operation or specific form illustrated since theinventive structure should encompass all reasonable equivalents ofstructure as claimed in the following claims.

I claim:

1. A cleaning cloth comprising: a porous fabric; a plurality of openstring loops having ends stitched to a surface of said fabric in apattern arrangement and extending along and somewhat away from saidsurface in a general direction toward one edge of said fabric; saidloops having considerable body to prevent their being flattened; saidloops including open large loops to pick up particles and including opensmaller loops inside said larger loops to receive the particles fromsaid larger loops and transfer them to the pores of said fabric.

2. A cleaning cloth comprising: a porous fabric having a porosity withpores sufliciently large to receive and hold dirt particles, a pluralityof pairs of open fabric loops secured to and extending from a surface ofsaid cloth in a generally unidirectional arrangement; each of said pairsincluding a smaller open loop within a larger open loop; and at leastthe body of said loops being impregnated with a polishing wax, with saidloops remaining free and open to receive dirt particles and transferthem to the pores of said porous fabric.

3. A wiping and washing cloth comprising: a porous fabric; the porosityof said porous fabric being such that the pores are sutliciently largeto receive and retain particles of dirt therein; a plurality of groupsof free, open, fibrous string loops stitched to a surface of said clothand extending therefrom; said groups having open smaller loops withinopen larger loops; and the body of said loops being impregnated with asubstance providing considerable body to said loops causing them toprotrude from said fabric to pick up dirt and pass the dirt particles tothe pores of said porous fabric.

4. A cleaning cloth comprising: a porous fabric; a plurality of openstring loops having ends stitched to a surface of said fabric in apattern arrangement and extending along and somewhat away from saidsurface toward one edge of said fabric; each of said loops having itsextending end free and flexible as well as open; said loops includinglarger loops, and including smaller loops cooperative with said largerloops to pass dirt particles up to the porous fabric; said porous fabrichaving pores size sufficient to receive the dirt particles from saidloops and retain dirt particles; and the body of said loops beingimpregnated with a polishing wax to have sufiicient body to hold saidfabric off the surface during use to prevent scratching of the surfaceby the retained dirt particles in said porous fabric, and to render aminor polishing action.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,110,001 Kingman Mar. 1, 1938 2,997,074 Law Aug. 22, 1961 3,030,691 LawApr. 24, 1962

1. A CLEANING CLOTH COMPRISING: A POROUS FABRIC; A PLURALITY OF OPENSTRING LOOPS HAVING ENDS STITCHED TO A SURFACE OF SAID FABRIC IN APATTERN ARRANGEMENT AND EXTENDING ALONG AND SOMEWHAT AWAY FROM SAIDSURFACE IN A GENERAL DIRECTION TOWARD ONE EDGE OF SAID FABRIC; SAIDLOOPS HAVING CONSIDERABLE BODY TO PREVENT THEIR BEING FLATTENED; SAIDLOOPS INCLUDING OPEN LARGE LOOPS TO PICK UP PARTICLES AND INCLUDING OPENSMALLER LOOPS INSIDE SAID